LGBTQ+ Mental Health Mainstream LGBTQ+ is a topic that is mainstream and has been an important topic throughout history. To look back, if you think about how far the LGBTQ community has come from, once being outlawed, being shamed, to a community that is accepting of all. However, despite all this growth and achievement in society, the LGBTQ+ community still faced much adversity, considering their mental health. Mental health has been looked down upon for many years, until these upcoming years when mental health has been taken more seriously, and more recognized, however, this is not applicable to everyone, especially to the LGBTQ+ community. This could possibly be because people in this community face discrimination. In fact, people who …show more content…
The media largely does not represent the LGBTQ+ community through mass media, and even more concerning, the media will often misrepresent the community. With misrepresentation, a stigma grows towards the community, spreads false information, or even negatively portrays the LGBTQ+ community. For example “A new study published in LGBTQ Health found that frequent exposure to negative depictions of transgender people in the media was significantly associated with clinical symptoms of depression, anxiety, global psychological distress, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in this population (Feenway)”. Damaging information or misrepresentation can be detrimental to the mental health of the community. In the 1980s, when a new sexually transmitted disease was on the rise (AIDS), people began to start to blame the LGBTQ+ community, and the disease was largely labeled as a “gay disease.” With the stigma around the disease, the issue of AIDS was hardly spoken about, and even the former president, Reagen chose to not speak about the topic of AIDS, which lead to the spread of the disease, the growth of deaths around this disease, and the overall disconcert of the topic of AIDS. The negative labels put on AIDS’s disease as a “gay disease,” would shame individuals for being who they were and damage their self-image. Moreover, people would correlate being a part of the LGBTQ+ community with people who had AIDs, which is simply not true, as AIDS is a type of autoimmune disease that can affect
The LGBTQ community is one that faces an ongoing storm of stereotyping and stigmas and the media is no relief from it. One major factor in this is the common trope of the violent and aggressive transgender woman, which is often shown through
In the article “Accessing Treatments: Managing the AIDS Epidemic in Ontario in Knowledge, Experience& Ruling Relations” by George W. Smith, the author pointed out how the ideology and social construction of common knowledge about AIDS influence the treatment for those patients negatively. Smith believed the general public and government have been lack of sufficient knowledge about AIDS, the AIDS patients and the government, the organization who providing the treatment are disconnected. There are still lots of people think AIDS is fatal illness disease and mainly caused by homosexuality. Smith thinks the lack of treatment for AIDS is basically due to the homophobia, labeling and prejudices formed by the public and mass media, and the government
In the 1980s, during the apogee of the AIDS crisis, many conservatives came forward to blame the homosexual community for the epidemic. For instance, according to Armstrong, Lam, and Chase, Kaposi’s sarcomas, along with other diseases, make up a list of conditions that serves as a guideline for the diagnosis of AIDS. In fact, its relation to AIDS is so remarkable that it became a label; in a society that is divided by pre-conceived ideas of morality, it became a visual representation of HIV as a punishment for homosexuality. However, in Angels in America: a Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Tony Kushner attributes a greater meaning to the lesions caused by Kaposi’s sarcoma – from death sentence to change, and finally, to redemption. These lesions symbolize the lethality that comes with AIDS, and how it has shaped the sense of community amongst homosexuals.
Aids Affects Everyone, Not just Poor On August 19, 1992, a silent killer was bought forth during the National Republican Party convention in Houston, Texas. Mary Fisher, an AIDS activist, wrote an eloquent speech about what it’s like to be infected with the silent killer—AIDS. Fisher, one of the victims of this killer, delivered to the convention information and education about who the AIDS victims are. She uses persuasive authority supporting her position by telling the nation about the silent killer—AIDS. She announced that she was not the usual suspect attacked by this killer disease.
In this day and age, the LGTBQ+ community is expanding rapidly. Therefore, the community has included the plus sign at the end to represent those who are questioning, pan-gendered, intersexed, transsexual, or two-spirited and the many new ways people are self-identifying. Each generation is becoming more exposed to more information and are capable to choose from openly out members of the LGBTQ+ community as role models. For younger generations, it may become easier to recognize and acknowledge one’s sexual orientation or gender identity than those apart of Generation X and the Baby Boomers. However, even in this more open-minded society, homophobia is still living, breathing, and thriving.
AIDS is a condition that is caused by a condition called HIV that attacks the immune system of people, making them weaker, vulnerable and decreasing their life expectancy. This disease is transmitted by certain bodily fluids and it has affected the infectants as well as their families and friends due to social stigmas and misunderstandings about AIDS. The epidemic had a big social impact within the United States, “When AIDS appeared in the early 1980s, most of its victims were gay men. For a time the disease was known as GRID—gay-related immune deficiency. The epidemic rekindled older pseudoscientific ideas about the inherently diseased nature of homosexual bodies.”
In the reading by Peter Redman, he raises the argument that the ‘AIDS carrier” becomes the central representation of the HIV epidemic and how the representations of HIV cannot be narrowed down to one cause. In addition, the ‘AIDS carrier’ is represented as monster and the carrier spreads HIV from the deviant subpopulations to the mainstream. Also, AIDS has been connected to social and moral issues and singles out groups like gay men, black people, and young single women. These groups are then viewed as diseased subpopulations and that causes others to feel disgust and panic. The heterosexual men are then afraid to have physical or emotional contact with men in general and that’s why boundaries of heterosexual masculinity were produced.
Liam Delaney Mr. Musgrove Senior comp Lit 16 February 2023 LGBTQ+ Mental Health: An Overview of Current Research and Implications for Practice LGBTQ+ individuals are a diverse group of people who face various mental health challenges due to the stigma and discrimination they experience. Despite progress toward greater acceptance and inclusion in recent years, many LGBTQ+ individuals continue to face discrimination, harassment, and violence, which can negatively impact their mental health. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of current research on LGBTQ+ mental health, highlighting key findings and implications for practice. Studies consistently show that LGBTQ+ individuals experience higher rates of mental health problems than their
Mental health is a state of psychological well-being. According to World Health Organization (WHO) mental health includes "subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, intergenerational dependence, and self-actualization of one's intellectual and emotional potential, among others." (Organization, WHO 2001) However, cultural differences, race, ethnicity, personal background, subjective assessment, and socioeconomic status all affect how mental health is defined. This variation in definitions of mental health between different sects of our society further causes drift in methods of treatment, and may cause the burden of mental health to be greater on some cultures.
The AIDS epidemic of the 1980s remains a significant chapter in American history, with eternal effects on public health. With numerous factors contributing to its outbreak, The virus accelerated through 150,000 Americans in the 1980s. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus which eventually leads to AIDS, spread rapidly within minority populations and the LGBTQ+ community. As both infection and fatality rates both soared during the 1980s, science worked vigorously to research the disease. The position which helped lead these people was held by two presidents, Ronald Reagan, and George W Bush.
In the mid-1980s all the way through the 1990s, the United States was plagued with an epidemic and the fears that came along with this, after severely infected areas like New York City were forced to recognize AIDS as a rapidly spreading disease. AIDS is mostly a sexually transmitted virus that attacks white blood cells and weakens the body’s ability to fight off infections, and if left untreated, can result in death. This virus was most identified as claiming more lives of black, male homosexuals, than any other populated group in the U.S at this time, and therefore AIDS was considered a “gay disease” that left this group stigmatized and loathed by an already racist and homophobic society. The term “living with AIDS” began to be utilized when
We sometimes find ourself contemplating about who we are and what do we want in our life. As a gay man I have found myself stuck in many places, this is totally normal. We all try to find that perfect life but sometimes it involves barriers. Being wrong and owning up to what you want in life makes the ride easier. Thus being said, I would like to introduce myself with memories that shaped who I am and the struggles that I’ve achieved.
Why do the people of today still associate stigma, shame and blame with mental health issues? Mental health issues are extremely and widely misunderstood. Despite the fact one in four people are likely to experience some kind of mental health problem a year in the United Kingdom. “Mental health is a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being and it affects how we feel, think and act. It also helps to determine how we handle situations such as stress, how we relate to others and how we make decisions.